AB HAMID MATU Vs. STATE OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY virtue of Government order dated 8 -1 -72 issued under the signatures of the Joint Secretary to the Government, the Government appears to have approved a seniority list of Engineers in the Electrical Department of the State in which after a full and complete inquiry, the seniority committee submitted its report which is said to have been approved by the Government. This order provided that any person who was aggrieved against the seniority list was entitled to file his appeal under the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules of 1956. (hereinafter to be referred to as the Classification Rule:; of 1956). This order of the Government was followed by another order No. E -340 -WIP of 1972 dated 29 -4 -72 by which the respondents, PM Tiku, AK Nagpal and LK Wazir who are the respondents 2, 3 and 4 in the petition were appointed as Superintending Engineers in the Electrical Department. Aggrieved by these two orders, the two petitioners namely M.M Fotedar and AH Matu filed these petitions praying for a writ of certiorari in order to quash the two orders of the Government, impugning them on various grounds. As both the petitions involve common questions of law and fact, we propose to decide them by one judgment, indicating, however, the individual facts of each petitioner separately. While the petition of M M Fotedar was pending in this Court, Messrs Maqbul Ahmad Khan, K.L. Kaul, Swaran Singh and Mohd. Aslam Khan sought permission of this court to intervene in the petitions, claiming the same relief as the petitioners though on different grounds. They were permitted to intervene in the petitions. The interveners have in their affidavits tried to highlight their qualifications and sought to challenge the orders impugned on various grounds.

(2.) THE petitions arise in the following circumstances: It may be necessary to give a brief history of the careers; of the petitioners Fotedar and Mattu separately. The petitioner Fotedar (hereinafter referred to as the first petitioner) passed out his M.Sc. Physics in 1946 and missed first division only by two marks. Thereafter he obtained his DIISc in Electrical Engineering in 1949. In 1954 he passed his DIISc in Elect. Comm. Engg. and then became AMIE. The first petitioner was appointed as Asstt. Engineer Electrical in the grade of Rs. 300 -500 (later revised to Rs. 300 -750) on 28 -1 -1955. On 2 -6 -1962 the first petitioner was appointed as Executive Engineer Electrical Division in the grade of Rs. 500 -1000 (later revised to Rs. 500 -1100). This appointment was confirmed by an order of the Government No. 8 -53 WIP 64 dated 22 -2 -64 which is annexure E to the petition of Mattu. The petitioner figured at the tentative seniority list of the Asstt. Engineers prepared by the Government some time in 1962 and was shown at No 6. This seniority list is annexure C to the petition of the first petitioner. There was another seniority list of the year 1964 where the petitioner was shown at No. 24 and respondent No. 3, AK Nagpal, was shown at No. 15. The petitioner is said to have filed his representations against the alleged change in his seniority by the 1964 list. In the seniority list dated 8 -1 -72 (annexure D to the petition of the first petitioner) the said petitioner was shown at No. 14 in the seniority list of Executive Engineers whereas respondents 2 to 4 were shown at Nos. 3, 4 and 5 in that list. This culminated in the order of promotion of respondents 2 to 4 on 29 -4 -72 (Supra). Before closing the factual part of the career of this petitioner, it may be mentioned that while the petitioner was Asstt. Engineer, he was suspended by the then Prime Minister of the State on 25 -6 -61 because he was not found to be on duty when the Prime Minister visited the Department. The respondents as also the interveners appear to have made capital out of this order of suspension which has been alleged to be a very serious stigma on the career of this petitioner. The order of suspension was, however revoked on 15 -9 -61 and the petitioner was reinstated and therefore any stigma that attached to him was removed because only a year after this the petitioner No. 1 was promoted as Executive Engineer and placed in charge of a division on 2 -6 -62. It is therefore clear that the order of suspension was passed under some misapprehension and where the petitioner made representations against the same, he was reinstated and the order was revoked. Thus this episode in the life of the first petitioner cannot be treated as of any consequence so as to mar his future career.

(3.) SO far as the second respondent is concerned, he was appointed as Supervisor in the Electrical Department in the grade of 150 -300 (non -gazetted) on 16 -7 -1955, whereas respondents 3 and 4 were appointed on 1 -7 -55 as Shift Engineers in the grade of 150 -300 (non -gazetted). Both these posts were admittedly below the post of Asstt. Engineer. It is however conceded that respondents 2 -4 had also possessed equivalent Engineering degrees and were eligible for appointment as Assistant Engineers, but the Government in its discretion did not consider it fit to appoint them as Asstt. Engineers straightway as was done in the case of the first petitioner and A.H. Mattu, but these respondents were first appointed to the lower grade, perhaps the Government realized that some injustice had been done to the respondents 2 to 4 in their initial appointment which weighed with the Government in passing the order No. 142 -C of 1956 dated 14 -1 -56 directing that Engineering graduates who were employees of the P.W.D. and were working as Supervisors would count their period of service as Supervisors towards the probation period as laid down on their appointment as Assistant Engineers. The order is annexure L to the petition of Mattu. The order may be quoted thus: